Agriculture tax to be imposed in phases: Punjab Finance Minister

Punjab Finance Minister Mian Mujtaba Shujja ur Rehman has said that tax in the budget 2013-14 has been levied only on affluent segments while there is also a proposal to impose tax on agriculture sector. He was speaking to various delegations of Party workers here on Friday, disclosed an official. He said agriculture tax will be implemented in phases and provincial income will be increased due to reforms to be introduced in tax collection system.

“Property tax, motor vehicle tax and tax on services are the major sources of provincial income. The development of education is the top priority of the provincial government and a sum of Rs244 billion has been allocated in the new budget for this sector which is 26 percent of the total budget. Similarly, an amount of Rs102 billion will be utilised on the provision of health facilities, which is 10.9 percent of the total budget. A huge amount of Rs7.5 billion is being spent on the provision of free treatment and medicines to the poor and destitute in public sector hospitals of the province,” he added.

According to him, the public sector hospitals are being modernised and also Rs300 million has been reserved for dialysis facilities for poor kidney patients. Medical facilities are available to influential people in the past; however, the present government is ensuring availability of free of cost medicines to the deserving and poor patients. The administrative affairs of government hospitals are being corrected.